The Trinity Centre for New Irish Studies (CNIS) was launched in Trinity this week by Trinity’s Dean of Research, Professor Linda Doyle, at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.
The centre provides a “multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to researching the island of Ireland”. Its study is to look at Ireland from both a local and global perspective. The centre also seeks to utilise “one of the largest and most diverse concentrations of Irish studies scholarships in the world, with 280 members of the Making Ireland research scheme working in the area of Irish research studies”.
CNIS Director, Dr Mark Hennessy, highlighted the importance of this initiative in response to the “ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland”, and said that “the priorities for Irish studies are changing and Ireland’s place in the world is also changing; this new centre will contribute to understanding these changes”.
The CNIS is to include research in English, History, Genetics and Geography, while also seeing members come from various disciplines, including computer science, education, geology, and film studies. The CNIS will also be supported by many researchers in the British Isles, and across Europe.
Launching the centre, Trinity held a panel discussion entitled “Interdisciplinary Research on the Origins of the Irish People”. The panel included various academics, including Professor of Population Genetics Dan Bradley, and Lara Cassidy, who works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Genetics at Trinity, among others.
